On abandoning the thunderstorm tripole‐charge paradigm

We reexamine the original, half‐century‐old, in situ measurements of Simpson and colleagues used to justify the tripole model of charge structure of a thunderstorm that became the paradigm for the charge structure of mature thunderstorms. We find that the original measurements violate the criteria of the tripole model in 49% of the cases. We also reexamine our soundings of electric field in thunderstorms and mesoscale convective systems in the same way as the original soundings were. Our soundings do not fit the tripole model in at least 86% of the storms. Even when we consider only the major features in the electric field profiles, our data show noncompliance with the tripole model in 45% of the cases. We conclude that we must abandon the paradigm of the tripole‐charge structure of thunderstorms.